March 26: Pre-Game notes

-The boys are talking with union chief Don Fehr, who says there is no compelling issue this year. There’s labor peace, afterall, and the money keeps rolling in.

-GM Omar Minaya has no word yet on Duaner Sanchez, but could later. The fact there’s no word could mean the Mets are seeking a second opinion. I don’t believe Minaya is being deceptive and don’t want to insinuate that (if I did in previous posts, that wasn’t meant to be). If they are seeking another opinion, that’s not uncommon.
-”Carlos Beltran”:http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?statsId=6132
is back. He was out yesterday with the flu.

-Carlos Delgado is still home with wife and baby.

-Rickey Henderson returns to camp until the end of the week.

-Scott Schoeneweis and Pedro Feliciano, both of whom are on the team, worked in a minor league game.

John Delcos enters his third season covering the Mets for The Journal News after eight seasons on the Yankees beat. Prior to coming to New York, John covered the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Indians.

If I were to pick one area of concern, it would have to be the bullpen. On two levels: The overworked factor and the unproven factor. Joe Smith, Ambiorix Burgos, Aaron Sele, Chan Ho Park, Jon Atkins. These are all pitchers with limited experience in the pen, or experience that has made us shudder this spring.